Bomber Bites With Jumping Joe–Golden Era Committee Misses the Boat with Jim Kaat

On Monday, the Golden Age Committee announced that former Yankee broadcaster Jim Kaat received ten votes for entrance into the Hall of Fame.  Unfortunately, Kaat needed 12 votes to get in. The Golden Age Committee once again elected no one for the Hall of Fame. Since the creation of the committee in 2011, only one person has gotten the required number of votes to get elected, Ron Santo.

With elections every three years, Kaat will need to wait until 2017 for his next chance at baseball immortality. Kaat received 10 votes each of his first two times through the Golden Age Committee process. With other seemingly deserving candidates such as Gil Hodges and Tony Oliva also falling short, one has to wonder why the committee has been so stringent in their selection process. 

More from Yankees News

• Baseball Reference proves Yankees’ Aaron Judge lives rent free in Boston
• Yankees’ Clay Holmes trade just became even bigger disaster for Pirates
• Mets stealing New York Post’s entire Yankees offseason plan is hilarious
• Yankees add to championship core with Wilmer Difo signing
• Aaron Judge’s ‘breadcrumbs’ showed he was never leaving Yankees, has more moves in mind

Kaat was a three-time All Star who spent 25 years in the majors playing for the Senators, Twins, White Sox, Phillies, Yankees and Cardinals.  Over the course of that lengthy career, Kaat was able to compile a 283-237 record and career ERA of 3.45.  In addition, Kaat may be the best fielding pitcher in history. Kaat won 16 Gold Gloves taking home the hardware every year from 1962-1977.  The 16 wins is second in history to Greg Maddux’s 18.

Kaat’s biggest detriment to his entry into the Hall is probably his extraordinarily long career. He last reached double digits in wins in 1976 but continued to play until 1983. He won 20 games three times including his terrific 1966 season in which he went 25-13 with an ERA of 2.75 with a league leading 19 complete games.

Kaat was a compiler. He racked up 283 wins which is more than several Hall of Famers including Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, Whitey Ford and others. However, his career ERA of 3.45 would be one of the highest in the Hall.  Advanced metrics don’t help his case a great deal either. His career WAR was only 45.4, ranking him 99^th all-time for starting pitchers.  That is below such obvious non Hall-worthy pitchers as David Wells (53.6), David Cone (62.5), and Kevin Appier (54.9).

However, Kaat’s Hall of Fame case transcends the numbers. He has been a terrific ambassador for baseball throughout his career that began with Dwight Eisenhower in office and ended with Ronald Reagan in the White House. He then became a pitching coach for the Reds under manager Pete Rose before becoming an award winning broadcaster.

At a time when the Hall of Fame is making a stand against PED users and suspected PED users, Kaat’s resume should glisten.  He has represented the game with honor and integrity for over 55 years. That should be the X factor in his candidacy that puts him over the top. Only 5 pitchers with more wins than Kaat are not in the Hall of Famer and of those Randy Johnson should be elected this year and Roger Clemens would be as well if not for his suspected PED usage. Hopefully, the Golden Age Committee gets it right in 2017.